Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Baltimore trial; water, sanitation & viruses

9-28-14 These cases are just in Baltimore only: Over the past four years, more than 100 people have won court judgments or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil rights violations. Victims include a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike, a 26-year-old pregnant accountant who had witnessed a beating, a 50-year-old woman selling church raffle tickets, a 65-year-old church deacon rolling a cigarette and an 87-year-old grandmother aiding her wounded grandson.

Those cases detail a frightful human toll. Officers have battered dozens of residents who suffered broken bones — jaws, noses, arms, legs, ankles — head trauma, organ failure, and even death, coming during questionable arrests. Some residents were beaten while handcuffed; others were thrown to the pavement. And in almost every case, prosecutors or judges dismissed the charges against the victims — if charges were filed at all. http://data.baltimoresun.com/news/police-settlements/

Highest-ranking officer, Baltimore Police Lt Brian Rice (pictured), who was charged for his alleged role in the Freddie Gray case will stand trial

5-2-15 "I hear him screaming," Moore said Friday. "Those screams from that video -- it haunts me every night."

And pretty much every night since Moore pressed "record" on his cellphone and gave the video to media and police.

The Gray case has been headline news in Baltimore and nationwide, but in that moment on the morning of April 12, Moore wasn't thinking about media attention. He said he just wanted to capture a moment he thought others should see -- what he calls the truth about life in Sandtown.

"I'm straight from the mud. All I know is raw, uncut truth," Moore said. http://www.wbaltv.com/news/man-who-recorded-freddie-grays-arrest-didnt-want-it-swept-under-the-rug/32736374

5-27-16 While the rest of the world awakens to the damaging effects of pesticide pollution, officials in the U.S. are working to allow more pesticides into our water supplies. The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to loosen already weak pesticide regulations in a purported effort to combat the spread of the Zika virus. The latest version of the bill is called the Zika Control Act....Regulators' decision to permit more aerial spraying for mosquitoes could have dire consequences, as new research has linked the practice to an increase in autism.

Scientists said in April at the Pediatric Academic Societies that the effort to decrease birth-defects caused by mosquito-borne viruses may actually be causing more birth defects.

Researchers observed a 25 percent increase in autism and developmental disorders among children living in areas where aerial spraying for mosquitoes has been used since 2003, Natural News reported.http://www.naturalnews.com/054164_Zika_virus_pesticide_restrictions_House_Republicans.html#ixzz4DhDcZ5nr............................................5-24-16 A recent press release by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that the former Kil-Tone Company facility in Vineland, N.J., has now been added to its "Superfund list of the country's most hazardous waste sites."In its own words, the EPA explains that "pesticides were manufactured at the now defunct Kil-Tone Company facility, and groundwater and soil at the site, including soil in the yards of nearby homes, is contaminated."

GENEVA (11 March 2015) – “As the world looks for hi-tech solutions to the Zika virus, we should not forget the appalling state of water and sanitation access of the poor, a key underlying determinant of the right to health,” today said the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Léo Heller.

“We can engineer sterile mosquitos or use sophisticated Internet tools to map data globally, but we should not forget that today a hundred million people in Latin America still lack access to hygienic sanitation systems and seventy million people lack piped water in their places of residence,” the independent expert stressed.

“There is a strong link between weak sanitation systems and the current outbreak of the mosquito borne Zika virus, as well as dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya,” Mr. Heller said, “and the most effective way to tackle this problem is to improve the failing services.”

- See more at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=17212&LangID=E#sthash.xo0KBH4J.dpuf